It finally feels like Spring is here

On Friday morning i was taking the dog out to do her business and i saw this:

Worm Castings


It doesn't look like much but if the worms are tossing up castings it means the ground is thawing out.

This is what was left of the snow in the yard on Friday:



Did i post that my Ancient Sweet Peppers came in?


My Hoya pubicalyx philippine black chimera is getting ready to bloom for the first time:



The rhubarb is waking up:



Saturday was beautiful and warm,  i had the windows open and i spent the day out in the sun just soaking it in.
Sunday was bright as well,  but the wind was chilly.  We got rain Sunday night and into Monday,  which melted almost all the rest of the snow in the yard.  The weather cleared up nicely later on Monday.  I took my 4 year old daughter out to play for a bit,  but she started misbehaving so we had to go back in.
Today is cloudy and chilly again and tomorrow is supposed to be quite cold,  but the rest of the week  is forecast to be around the 50's and sunny.  I'm actually seeing flurries out the window right now.

Three out of the 5 gojiberry seeds i planted for my mom have come up.  Aunt Molly's ground cherries have too.  The schizandra seeds are done with their 30 day stratification and need to be planted.   I haven't gotten any more seeds started lately,  i had planned to over the weekend but i spent Saturday enjoying the weather and spent Resurrection Sunday with family.  I need to get going on those peppers and get those tomatoes started!

Early Spring Continues

The weather was gorgeous today. We were easily in the 70's.  Budding and leafing is well underway for most things. The apple tree is almost ready to open its leaf buds,  the lilacs have leaves that are thumb sized.  The horseradish has been awake for weeks now,  the asparagus are popping up,  the blueberries are sending out red buds,  elderberries are sending out shoots. Daffodils are blooming, Stanley (prune plum) is waking up. I've got the rhubarb covered by a black rubber tub to blanch it. Also, my from-seed Autumn olive is leafing.

First mow of the lawn was done today.

Its been so dry though.  Fire warnings have been issued almost daily and we have not had more than a token rain shower or two for what seems like a very long time.

We are still getting the occasional frost.  Of course i'm worried about flowering and killing frosts.  But there's nothing i can do really.


i ...think... my unnamed elderberry might be dead.  its showing no signs of waking up,  while York and Nova are stretching out.  Its ok though,  i'd rather have named plants anyhow.  I have Goldbeere and Caerulea coming. I'll just dig it up and throw it out.  New plants should be here by the end of the month.

I was hoping to start digging up the unwanted plants this weekend,  but our oldest daughter spent the weekend at my parents' house so i had nobody to watch the youngest daughter while i dug.  So maybe sometime this week since it is April vacation.

I'm hoping to get my seeds started this week as well.  Its Sunday now and 7 weeks to last frost.  After years of starting way too early i have finally learned to cool my jets and wait.  I'll start tomatoes first and squashes later.  Cukes too.
I'm also not using 9packs this year.  The wells are just too small for good root growth.  i never have time or the room to pot-up,  so i'm using the paper flats i saved from last years' marigolds and 3" single pots saved from herbs i bought from Garden Spot.

Well i guess that is it for today.  I started writing this Saturday and its now Sunday morning and the little one wants desperately to go outside,  so out we go!
.-
.

April showers...

Not much to journal about today other than rainfall.   We got about 2 inches of it over the weekend. Temperatures stayed above freezing, but not by much.  There is no longer any snow or ice in the yard and the angle of the sun is moving in a way that the grapes are getting more direct sun.  The currants are on the brink of leafing out.  The blueberry plants are sporting ever-growing leaf buds,  the elder hasn't woken up yet, but does not appear dead- just slow.
The daffs are in full bloom, the crown imperials are budding and will bloom soon.  I have emailed my mom offering her all the flowers from both front beds so i can replace them with berry bushes.  I may move the blueberries to that area or get some other things-  the autumn olive that i  grew from seed is still indoors (about 10" tall) and will likely be planted in the side garden.  I need to start some goji, sea buckthorn, seakale and other berry plants... i have been saying i'm going to do this for months, eventually it will happen!

Hubby started to rake the garden debris into a pile in the middle of the garden to burn it. Though the rain had soaked everything and fire danger was very low, the wind picked up and we decided it wasn't a good day for it.  So we put the fire out halfway through.  If we could just get a day without this annoying wind, we'd be able to do it.

Its been chilly and mostly cloudy today, but the warmup is well on its way.  I have been checking the small asparagus bed daily now,  but nothing yet. Its likely too early.  The Welsh onions are perking up nicely and the chives at the corner of the side bed are coming up. 

I decided i should try blanching the rhubarb this year.  It seems to be the thing to do- so i'll give it a go. I bet it will be nice!  I used my 30 gallon, black rubber tub.  It won't blow over easily and is completely light-proof.


So that's it today!

A few days worth....

Sunday---

I took a few pictures yesterday, some things are waking up and i'm getting a first look at finding out which things survived the winter.

The comfrey crowns are definitely waking up.  They seem to have done quite well wintering-over in my last resort solution- a full bag of potting soil with holes poked in.

The roseroot seedlings that i didn't get to do anything with last year are still alive and beginning to wake up.  Its a type of sedum, the roundish lumps are hard to see...

The rhubarb is coming up, this means the ground is thawing.

The grapes and blueberries are still under a snowpile.  I tried to speed up some melting by opening up a black plastic trash bag and laying it down. I hoped it would catch the sun enough to help,  it sort of did in the small spot it was placed
.
 We are expecting temps in the high 50's and possible rain,  so maybe the rest will be washed away.  That line is the only snow still on the ground in our yard.

Hubby helped me scrape away quite a bit of it and the edges which were packed by refreezing was breakable. We crushed it into chunks and tossed it into the dryer parts of the lawn.  We got a good bit of it cleared away.  Now that the landscape fabric is exposed, melting should speed up quite a bit.

Monday--

thunder overnight and more later that morning
we actually were able to have the bedroom window open all last night
steady rain most of the day. Temps in the high 40's
The grapes are thawing out nicely.

We do have a crocus in bloom and the daffodils are  making decent headway. That's a good sign.
I managed to rake out the debris from the front and side flower beds Sunday. I think once the tulips, daffs and other things are done blooming i will dig them up and share them with my mom.  The iris and roses will go too.  Then i'll put down landscape fabric then mulch it.  I may put something in later in the summer after any weeds have been choked out.  I really can't put much in there right off because it is so full of weeds, which is one of the main reasons why it needs to be cleaned out entirely anyway.

Tuesday---

Last night it stayed in the 60's over much of the state until well after midnight. Its in the mid 50's right now at about 10am.

Temps expected to reach mid to high 60's with plenty of sun and a dry breeze.
The grapes, blueberries, currants and elderberry are 90% free of the ice.  There is some ice behind them, but it no longer goes right up to the base of the plants.  Some of them are getting swollen leaf buds even though the ground around them is rock hard.  Today's expected weather should make a huge difference now that the black landscape fabric is mostly exposed.

According to the forecasters,  we shouldn't expect this weather to last to stick around for tonight.  We may get a rain/snow mix overnight.  We are only supposed to get around 40 degrees tomorrow and plenty of rain- better than snow!  Hopefully, Thursday will bring back temps in the 50's or better.  For the remainder if the extended forecast, we will stay cooler- 40's- and more rain toward the end of it.

So...the ground will have a slow thaw and things will remain quite wet. I'm glad the garden is on a mild slope, this will help it to stay drier than most other areas.  I'm hoping my dad will be willing to come and till it on the next dry weekend.  I'm hoping to have him till it at least twice before the final pass-through the day before planting.
I wish we had one of these. Then i wouldn't have to make my dad need to load his onto a trailer 4 times a year just for me.

Where last year was so unusually warm, this year is almost normal- perhaps a bit cooler.  It feels weird though- i spent so much time recording how spring was going last year i tend to remember it better than if i had not. So to me, it seems like things are way behind.  At this time of year i'm always close to chewing my nails off in anticipation no matter what the weather is, which means its not an accurate gauge.   I love winter, but after 4 months of being snowbound, its hard to not get excited about gardening for those of us who really enjoy it.

Both the tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings are doing quite well. The Banana Legs tomatoes have sprouted and now look quite normal- so my apologies to Pinetree- it looks like the seed was fine. I bet this variety may simply be slower to germinate than the rest of what i have.
Many of the seedlings are getting into their first set of seed leaves. The peppers and eggplant are looking nice and stocky. The tomatoes are not spindly, but they are already getting tall, the lights are only about 3" above them and they have almost reached it.  The lights should be very intense, but it looks as if i will end up with some lanky tomato plants this year anyway.  So i'm making a note here to start things a bit later next year- perhaps a week from now would have been just as well.  Its ok. Now that i have a method and means to remind myself of these things, i can learn by it.

Pictures:

Yellow Crocus

Pink Bleeding Hearts are waking up

Roseroot sedum are green up and enlarging quickly

Rhubarb is really unfolding

Currants getting leaf buds

Blueberries are waking up

Garden looks a mess right now, hopefully not for long.

I have to get into my berry plant seeds and get them started or i'll never get large enough plants to use in the yard.  I have been putting it off because someone small and cute does not like to take naps and i am so tuckered out by the time she does, i end up napping too- and i have never been able to do that before. It just isn't right. I literally cannot stay awake at times.  Hopefully this goes away for the summer or the garden is going to be in trouble!

Some pictures

Makeshift coldframe of sorts... or maybe a frost chamber...where the wintersown sprouts go to wait out the frost, but it allows them to get full or partial sun during the day and shelter at night.

Broccoli (gypsy) in the front, buttercrunch lettuce next, then cauliflower (graffiti) in the back.
Its a Rubbermaid or Sterilite semi-transparent tote with a scrap of 2x4 and a recycled, frosted, plastic shower curtain folded over it.

Rhubarb.
I think this is the first garden item we planted when we moved in. It does well every year, but i never had the chance to make much of it, but i could have.  Anyway, when its up you know the ground is thawing out for sure!

Hoop test.
One of the 1/2'' PVC pieces, bent to a 4' wde base, steadied by a makeshift footing of cinder blocks. This way i know how high the hoops will be at the center....about 48".  I wanted to see what the minimum straddle i could get, 4 feet will be perfect since i am thinking i might try a hybrid Square Foot technique.  The hoops placed 4' apart and spaced 4' wide will mark my plots nicely...convenient. :-)

Lilac buds are swelling.
My camera can't take macros to save its existence.

Daffodill.
Trying to open, maybe by the time this area gets full sun today, it will.

Houseplants.

Goldfish plant. 

It finally bloomed. I grew this plant from a clipping i took from the waiting room of my Dr's office when i had my test to confirm my pregnancy that resulted in my second daughter. She turned one last month. :) It is quite lush and full now for starting from so tiny a piece.  I wish i had done something like that for my first daughter.

 

Bay Laurel.

 This foolish thing has been little more than a stick for over 8 years.  I have had this plant for a long time. I have used a few of its leaves. I think three years ago it finally developed a second branch- that forked bit at the top,  the shoot from the bottom developed around December of last year.  It has got to be the ugliest plant i own, but i keep it cause it is legitimately a useful plant.

I need to find a way to make it branch out more. I'd snip the tips, but since there are only 3 and they contain all the leaves i don't want to murder the thing.   I have been told to pot it in bigger pots, and in smaller pots... i fertilize it carefully.  It just drives me nuts for being ugly.

This is the plant shelf i made to hang above the sink, under the light.

I overwintered my 6 Hoyas and two of my 3 remaining Passiflora there. Darned spider mites took out my other Passiflora plants.  The window gets nice and bright and there is the tube light up there that comes on in the evenings.